Introduction

It set out an infrastructure programme worth a staggering £411 billion across the UK economy from 2015 onwards.

Planned by both public and private sectors across transport, energy, communications and the environment.

Although dizzying in scale the report clearly established the biggest construction and engineering challenge of this age.

How to train and provide a skilled workforce capable of delivering such a vast programme within an already competitive global infrastructure market.

So today I want to talk about the unprecedented skills challenge we face in Britain today.

And particularly within transport.

Transport

When we look back at Britain’s rich transport history, our ships that created the first global economy, our railway that blazed a trail during the 19th century, our genius for industrial design and engineering, we tend to associate our success with a few brilliant pioneers.

And rightly so.

If it weren’t for the ‘Stephensons’ and ‘Brunels’, the development of transport would have looked very different.

But what’s often overlooked is how we were able to mobilise a highly skilled workforce, which was just as important a resource as the coalfields which powered the Industrial Revolution.

But in the 20th century, when we stopped investing in transport, we stopped investing in skills.

They were no longer handed down to the next generation.

Competitors began to overtake us.

And we’re living with the legacy of that underinvestment today.

Not just on our roads and railways.

But in our workforce too.

So when we’re investing £70 billion in transport in this Parliament alone, we need a new generation of engineers, designers and construction professionals, as well as highly skilled people to operate the networks once they’re opened.

HS2

To illustrate the challenge, I want to focus today on HS2.

Not just the single biggest transport scheme of our time, but the largest infrastructure project in Britain since the coming of the motorways.

25,000 jobs will be created during construction alone.

And it’s now just 2 years until building begins.

So preparations are moving quickly ahead.

Over the summer we started recruiting for HS2’s design panel.

Lord Adonis – who championed HS2 as Transport Secretary in the last Labour government – joined HS2 Ltd’s board.

And in the coming year the HS2 Bill is set to pass through the Hybrid Bill committee and reach third reading.

We have a clear plan to manage the deployment of thousands of infrastructure professionals, along with all the materials and machinery, in the run up to 2017.

And we are now starting the procurement process by preparing the contracts that will be signed as soon as the Bill has passed.

HS2 will create some of the largest value contracts in UK construction history.

They will generate tens of thousands of opportunities, 60% of which we expect to be awarded to small- and medium-sized businesses.

So HS2 Ltd has been touring round the country to engage firms interested in bidding most recently in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

So they too can start preparing to attract and develop the talented staff that will help them become a successful part of the HS2 story.

Skills and apprenticeships

But we know the skills shortage won’t solve itself.

We’re conscious that while we look for 25,000 skilled professionals for HS2, we also need 20,000 more people to deliver other road and rail schemes.

And that’s before we consider other potential new transport projects like Crossrail 2.

So we are getting ready now.

First, we are transforming apprenticeships with a commitment to train 3 million apprentices by 2020.

We have appointed Terry Morgan, the chairman of Crossrail, to develop a transport skills strategy, including 30,000 new rail and road apprenticeships in this Parliament.

We are working with suppliers to achieve this, and promoting a culture change that focuses on future need and not just the job in hand.

So when suppliers bid for work, they will also pledge to take on trainees, apprentices and graduates. and equip the workforce with the skills they need for the long-term.

We believe it’s better to invest in home-grown talent now, rather than wait and outsource work to international consultants later.

And it’s the supply chain, taking on apprentices at local levels, that will drive the skills revolution.